Kim Jong-un has 'done the world a favour' by putting Donald Trump 'on the back foot', Corbynista Paul Mason said last night.

The left-wing writer said the US president had 'fantasised' for 'all his life' about using nuclear weapons.

But the North Korean regime's defiance was showing him the realities of responding to threats of mass destruction.

The Question Time panel discussed the crisis over North Korea's drive to develop nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles last night

Donald Trump told the UN general assembly this week that he was ready to 'destroy' North Korea if it threatened America or its allies

Appearing on BBC Question Time last night, Paul Mason criticised the North Korean regime but said it had 'done the world a favour' by putting the US on the back foot

The comments came as Mr Mason appeared on BBC Question Time last night. He stressed that 'nobody should put up with' Kim Jong-Un's behaviour because he was in breach of international law and nuclear non-proliferation treaties.

But Mr Mason added: 'In a way, Kim Jong-Un has done - only in this metaphorical way - the world a favour because he has put Donald Trump on the back foot.

'Trump has all his life fantasised about using nuclear weapons.

'Right back to 1945, in American conservative tradition there is a wing that says nuclear weapons are not that bad, people survive them...